He urged Israeli forces to “exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable”.
The IDF said five were killed after “exchanges of fire” in Tulkarm with militants who had “hidden inside a mosque”. It said seven people had died in Jenin.
Mohammed Jaber, who is also known as Abu Shujaa, was among those killed, according to the Israeli military. He was reportedly the local leader of the Tulkarem Brigade, which is backed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
The IDF said Jaber was linked to a number of attacks on Israelis, and was planning more.
The Tulkarm Brigade said in a statement on Telegram that its fighters ambushed an Israeli infantry unit “in response to the assassination of our commander”, without naming him.
The IDF said it had apprehended 10 wanted suspects, and recovered explosives and weapons during raids in Tulkarm and Jenin.
The Palestinian Mission to the UN condemned the raids in a letter, external on Thursday, saying the Israeli military had “invaded homes, deliberately targeted civilians, destroyed vital infrastructure and even besieged the four main hospitals in the area”.
In Jenin, ambulances were being stopped and checked by military jeeps parked around the government hospital as security forces continued their operation in the city’s refugee camp.
The camp is a base for armed groups, as well as a home to unarmed civilians, and has been the scene of many fierce gun battles in the past.
Israeli forces have blocked access to the camp and Palestinian phone networks are down.
It is the second day of what Israeli media say could be a days-long operation in the West Bank.
It is one of the largest such actions in the West Bank since the days of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, two decades ago.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
